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We have finally gotten all of the painting squared away, and went down to Lowe’s last Monday to select the carpeting for the guest room. I’ll tell you, if ever there was an outfit where the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing, this is the place. We looked over several selections, and then paid a deposit to take home a board of samples. We had gotten a “guesstament” from the salesman, and he had told us we could simply call the store and make the deposit on the carpet over the phone.

Nothing doing. The woman at the desk said we had to come in and do it in person. “We’re not allowed to take credit card information over the phone.” Since The Squire was going in that direction on Thursday anyway, he stopped and took care of it. We went back on Friday evening to settle things, and arrange for somebody to come measure the room. When the man came, he was quite pleased that the tacking strips were still in place from the previous carpet, which he said would save us some money. I pointed out that we simply did not have space to move the TV, but if the installers would do the upper part of the room, my husband and I would move the set ourselves to that side, while the men did the lower part. OK.

When we went in to sign the final contract, we were being charged both $75 for tacking strips and $50 to move the TV. Needless to say, The Squire was not pleased. We had also received a $25 gift certificate in the mail, but we were told it could only be used for merchandize; it couldn’t be used to pay on a contract. Well, the contract was for merchandize, but that didn’t fly. It ended up with the manager giving us a new $25 gift card to spend on whatever we wished, and he “discounted” the contract by $25.

Yeesh. The Squire was ready to go to Home Depot, but that would have meant starting all over, with no guarantee things would be any better.

Things at church have been a bit confusing. (What else is new?) I was under the impression that one person was doing the Rota, and it was another person entirely. Since people still come to me with questions, I’m sort of caught in the middle. We have not had a newsletter since last April, and the website is “wonky”, so quite often people don’t know they are on until the pick up the bulletin in the narthex.

Today, the person who was to be crucifer became ill. I was assigned to assist at the altar, so she called another member to carry the cross in the procession. The gal she called is the shortest woman in the congregation, and Dulcie simply isn’t capable of carrying that cross, so I said I’d do it if she’d take the altar for me. Fair enough, except that Dulcie had a sore throat and didn’t want to read the Epistle. OK, I’d read both the Psalm (part of the crucifer’s job) and then cross the sanctuary and do the Epistle. I had gotten as far as the altar when another member of the church came up to the lectern, and since she is also a reader I figured she was going to do it, so I turned around and returned to my seat.

Except that Christine wasn’t going to read; she had a question about the Power Point, and she turned to her seat at the same time I did. Of course, I had my back to her at that point, and didn’t know she’d left. By that stage of the game, Dulcie decided the Epistle was only a few verses, and she might as well do it. Do-si-do, and allemande right!

For the last few months, we’ve noticed that foods from the fridge didn’t seem as cold as they should be, and milk went south faster than we thought it should. I even moved it from the door to the back of the top shelf, but that didn’t help.

The Squire grabbed a safety thermometer on one of his trips to the store, and we discovered that even at its coldest setting, the refrigerator was just barely making 40 degrees. Not Good News.

We checked Consumer Reports, looked at prices on-line, and all that jazz. We purchased our wall oven at a scratch-and-dent place downtown for $150 – self-cleaning, convection, with a microwave above. It has a scratch across the top I sometimes can’t even find when I want to show my friends. We decided what fridge we wanted, and I “suggested” The Squire go down to Haven Street to see what they have in stock, as it is really hit and miss. We need a small model, without an icemaker, as the sink is on the opposite wall. Believe me, finding something without a lot of bells and whistles is not easy.

He stopped at Lowe’s on the way into town, and went ahead and purchased the Frigidaire model we wanted. I was a little miffed, as it probably cost us twice what it should, but by this time the fridge was straining to hit 50, and we were purchasing groceries daily – every other day at most. Even the freezer wasn’t keeping things solid. He said – and he’s right – that we simply couldn’t afford to wait any longer, no matter what it cost. Food poisoning is no joke. And besides, Lowe’s delivers and the Scratch and Dent place doesn’t.

Lowe’s called last night and said they’d be here today between 1:30 and 3:30, so I went off at 10:00 this morning and did Altar Guild stuff. The Squire rang me at church and said they’d called and told him they would be here within a half an hour (this was 10:45) so I hustled on home and we started to transfer things from the fridge to the big freezer. One of the delivery men help him get the kitchen door off the hinges, while the other helped me pile stuff on counter tops and chair, and finally in the laundry basket, so they could remove the old unit and bring in the new one.

The only thing I don’t like about this fridge is that the crisper drawers slant sharply up from the bottom (__/ thus), so they only hold about half of what the old drawers held. I had to fight to get a package of celery in there. Other than that, it is a gem. The “holders” on the door snap off so you can wipe down the shelves, should you ever have that urge strike you, and it does seem to have more space inside than the old one.